Negation

General Post Office

1814 / Occupied 1916

Francis Johnston
Architect

Information

The occupation of the General Post Office (GPO) in Dublin by Irish rebels (including James Connolly and Padraig Pearse) at Easter 1916 was the beginning of a series of events which would eventually lead to Irish independence. Designed by the Irish architect Francis Johnston over a century before in 1814, the development of the modern postal service had been a key aspect in the colonial governance of the island. During the insurrection, the rebels seized a radio transmitter and, in an attempt to disseminate news of the uprising, effected what Marshall McLuhan called the first ever radio broadcast. The ruins of the GPO and its surroundings were widely published in the national and international press leading Dublin to be described as Ypres on the Liffey.